Beautifully Rustic Walkpath to Wat Pu

Lao Word of the Day: An Immigrant

Learning About the Past - Lao Refugees

Found some very old television documentary profiles and news clips on Youtube that profiled the Lao refugees who had fled to Thailand.  For those of us who are too young to remember such things, what we do remember are our parents sharing these harrowing stories about those times.  And for those old enough to remember such events, then the following videos are likely scenes you haven't seen in decades.  Very educational!

14 minute video profiling Lao refugees primarily those in Nongkhai, Thailand.
Source and date, unknown.

Lao Artist Profile: Marisa Darasavath

Feast your eyes on these sumptuous and gorgeous oil paintings from Lao painter, Ms. Marisa Darasavath.  She finds her inspiration from her environment and the locals with a focus on ethnic minorities and women in society.  She brings a wonderful mix of tones, depth and dimension to her work along with an understated whimsy.  A graduate of the National Institute of Fine Art in Vientiane she continues to showcase her work around Asia and in particular at the M Gallery in Vientiane.

A very stylized oil painting depicting Lao women working the rice fields.

China-Laos Military Relations Deepen As Chinese Increase Economic, Infrastructure Investments

By:  Michelle Florcruz, International Business Times, July 8 2015

China and Laos announced closer military ties Wednesday, a development that coincides with China's growing investment in infrastructure and economic influence.

The Laotian defense minister met with Xu Qiliang, the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, and other Chinese military officials Wednesday in Beijing to affirm increased cooperation between the two nations. The Laotian defense minister, Sengnuan Saiyalath, said, “Laos is willing to learn from China’s experiences in army building and further strengthen bilateral friendship and military relations,” according to China's state-run Global Times.

Saving Laos From Global Warming

By:  Joseph Hincks, Newsweek (US), June 25, 2015

Every May, when commercial airline pilot Benja Henderson flies in and out of Vientiane, the capital city of Laos, he has to navigate a perennial hazard: rockets flying over the great Mekong River. 

These projectiles are not the products of battle, despite the area’s history of sky-borne destruction—a covert war waged by the CIA brought over 2 million tons of ordnance down on Laos between 1964 and 1973. They’re part of an ancient agrarian ritual. At the height of Laos’s dry season, says Henderson, flight paths are modified as thousands of villagers up and down the country fire ballistics at the troposphere during boun bang fai, or rocket festivals. The rockets—PVC tubes packed with charcoal, bat excrement, sulfur and sometimes more than 250 pounds of gunpowder—are meant to provoke the irascible sky god Phaya Thaen into stirring up storms and nudge him to honoring a rain-sending pact he made with the Toad King, an incarnation of the Buddha.

Old Photo: A Fishing Dam?

Here's an old photo from 1910 taken in Luangprabang along the Nam Kan River, showing how they created an almost dam like structure made of bamboo to catch fish.  ການໃສ່ລອບທີ່ນ້ຳຄານຫຼວງພະບາງ1910 ການໃສ່ລອບນີ້ຕອ້ງໃສ່ເວລານ້ຳມາກ